Artist creates real life paintings

When it comes to the thorny issue of judging art we find it safe to adopt what we call the Montgomery Burns School of criticism: the central, and possibly only, tenet being if you don’t hate it, it means you probably like it.

So upon spying the work of American artist Alexa Meade we were moved to invoke Burns’s wise words from the classic 1994 Simpsons episode, Brush With Greatness, once more: “You know, I’m no art critic, but I know what I hate. And… I don't hate this.”

In essence, what Meade does is paint live models to make them look like paintings. Sound strange? Well, we guess it is, but we think you’ll agree, the finished product is darn realistic. She achieves this effect by applying acrylic paint to her subject and surroundings and then photographing everything.

The Washington-based artist has rather loftily claimed that she works at “the intersection of painting, photography, performance and installation.”

Which is just how we were about to describe her work.

(Images: AFP/Getty)